The Bush, Clinton oligopoly

I sat in my adult education class recently staring at the white board as my students took a test. The board included a list of U.S. presidents from 1900 through "W."

Richard Fabrizio

I sat in my adult education class recently staring at the white board as my students took a test. The board included a list of U.S. presidents from 1900 through "W."

It cemented how important the 2008 election is to the two parties under several frames of Oval Office scorekeeping. Republicans have held America's top political seat for 60 years since 1900, and Democrats for 48 years. Since 1960, its GOP 28, Democrats 20. And, from Nixon on, it's GOP 28, Democrats 12.

If Democrats win, they tighten the imbalance, but if they lose, Republicans will skew the representation even further. But something more significant stood out as I pondered America's future. Something perhaps more unnerving than America's two-party system being dominated by one party.

Have you stopped to think how the "leader of the free world" has been named Bush or Clinton since 1989? That's 20 years already? To expand it further, George H.W. Bush was Reagan's vice president from 1980-88, stretching the count to 28 years. There exists the distinct possibility another Clinton will be etched onto the presidential nameplates through 2017. If so, a Bush or Clinton would have been among America's top two political leaders for 36 years.

George P. Bush turns 35 in 2011, and Chelsea Clinton reaches presidential age eligibility in 2015. Let's keep it rolling!

Is America falling victim to a family oligopoly within a political monopoly fueled by the beast of electronic media, i.e., television? Is American politics being dumbed down, oversimplified and all about "celebrity candidates" endorsed by Hollywood celebrities like Barbara Streisand and Matt Damon? The term "celebrity candidate" is organic to the 20-ought years. Think Obama rock star? Think pulsing pop music blared at candidate appearances and shiny, glossy well-scripted 15-second soundbite commercials. And what politician doesn't have a New York Times best-selling book, or two, for that matter?

Leadership is not billion-dollar bouquets of government spending promises. It's not about talented orators giving speeches written by a team of marketing, err, political strategists.

Hillary Clinton is not a lock to win the Democrats' presidential nomination, nor is she assured of winning a general election. But she is the front-runner. Polls continue to put her ahead of Sen. Barack Obama. The latest Rasmussen Reports' automated national telephone survey conducted May 14-17 has Clinton earning 35 percent of the vote among Democrats, compared to Obama's 25 percent.

America having a post-modern predilection toward pagan hedonism is a mild understatement. Our culture loves actors, actresses, athletes and musicians far more than doctors, nurses, teachers, firefighters, police officers, moms and dads. And, it's looking more and more as if we added politicians to our idolatry.

People fawn over politicians today, praise them, hang on their every word as if they were among those carved as the Ten Commandments. They have entourages larger than an average NBA superstar.

The fame of politicians has seeped down from presidential candidates past U.S. senators (think John McCain and Joe Biden) and congressional representatives (think Nancy Pelosi) and governors (think Ahhh-nuld and Jesse "The Body" Ventura). Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich is in the GOP presidential mix and he's got a couple books.

You don't even need to have an elective office to be a celebrity politician these days. Jesse Jackson's a star and Al Sharpton's never too far from the glare of the TV camera.

The idolatry is here in little-old New Hampshire even if self-supposed. Just this past week, former state senator Burt Cohen was found guilty of resisting arrest and disobeying a police officer. The officer testified that when she stopped Cohen for a traffic violation, he repeatedly said, "Don't you know who I am?"

There was the story a couple months ago of Rep. Bea Francoeur, R-Nashua, who upon getting ticketed for speeding, said, "I informed a few of my colleagues at the Statehouse about my being detained. They were quick to point out that Section II, Article 21, of the New Hampshire Constitution reads: (Privileges of Members of Legislature.) "No member of the House of Representatives, or Senate shall be arrested, or held to bail ... during his going to, returning from, or attendance upon, the Court."

And there was a remark to me earlier this year by another member of our 424-person Legislature, plus five-member Executive Council, plus governor, that House members should be referred to as honorable so-and-so. The aforementioned incidents are not honorable and speak to a sad sense of entitlement to special treatment derived from being public servants. Who's serving whom here?

Rep. Carol Shea-Porter looks better by the day.

Running for office does not make one noble. Then again, nobility by definition means a class of persons distinguished by high birth or rank. Being elected doesn't make one a leader, and actions speak louder than well-scripted words.

Perhaps Hillary is the best woman to run the country and it shouldn't matter that her husband was president before her. I hope so, because I would rather not see the 2016 election be a political version of Fox TV's American Idol pitting George P. Bush against Chelsea Clinton for the Idol, I mean, Oval Office.

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